Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I do not wish to unnecessarily detain the House, but it is disappointing to hear the member for Melbourne and, in particular, the representative of the government, the Minister for Trade, reject these amendments. There is supposed to be bipartisan support from all members of the House for the traditional definition of marriage, and we are opposed to changing that definition within the Marriage Act. I would have thought that the government has had abundant experience lately to realise that some of these questions can be controversial. This question, in particular, is controversial, and there are different schools of law. Even though we would agree that the government's legal advice is correct, there are certainly others within the legal fraternity who would reject it. As I said when I introduced these amendments, they go to being abundantly cautious and making sure everybody understands what this parliament means when it passes this act and that this parliament reaffirms that we support the traditional definition of marriage.

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